


Semblance

by KakumeiNoHi



Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [16]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Bullying, Child Abuse, F/F, RWBY - Freeform, but also rwby fluff, it does get a little soft at the end though :3, oc parents death, this one is a bit heavier so be warned and careful, violent bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28157802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KakumeiNoHi/pseuds/KakumeiNoHi
Summary: Cassie was alone in her room.Her grandmother was in the kitchen making light dinner preparations for later. Cassie had greeted her from the front door without going to see her and she had immediately sprinted to her room on the second floor afterwards.The small Faunus sat by her bed on the floor, her arms around her knees and her face burrowed in them. Her body hurt, her elbow was bruised, her sweater was torn in that place. Her ears hang low and they were sore from all of the tearing and pulling.----------------Winter was in her father’s office.A gala he had put together at the manor had just ended. She had played the violin well, she had quietly stayed by his side and behind him.Everything had went well up until the moment one of his business partner’s sons had asked her to dance and she had refused.
Relationships: Winter Schnee/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914799
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Semblance

**Author's Note:**

> I wish I could give you guys a fluffy holiday one, but I'm not really one for this season.  
> While I was scribbling a bit on my new longer story arc however, I had this bit of inspiration and I had to get it out. Think of it as a bit of a prelude, maybe?
> 
> It is however a bit heavy, so be warned and careful, although it does get soft at the end ^_^"

Cassie was alone in her room.

Her grandmother was in the kitchen making light dinner preparations for later. Cassie had greeted her from the front door without going to see her and she had immediately sprinted to her room on the second floor afterwards.

The small Faunus sat by her bed on the floor, her arms around her knees and her face burrowed in them. Her body hurt, her elbow was bruised, her sweater was torn in that place. Her ears hang low and they were sore from all of the tearing and pulling.

Silent tears, so she wouldn’t be heard, were pouring out of her eyes. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be with her mom. She wanted to be with her dad. But they were gone. She was the only one left.

Why was she the only one left?

She should have paid more attention when they taught her something. Maybe she would have been stronger then. Maybe she could have been with them then.  
Maybe they would have taken her with them and they would have all fought together and won.

If only she wouldn’t have been of no help. She shouldn’t have been crying back then. It was probably her crying than made her dad throw her into the building. They were in danger and she was just crying. She shouldn’t have cried. She should have been strong.

Maybe she would be still with her mom and dad then.

Cassie raised her head to wipe some of her tears. She sniveled softly as she looked at her bruised hand. She had instinctively tried to soften the fall when she fell to the ground and both her elbow and hand had taken the brunt.

She had only been trying to find some flowers to give her grandmother as a gift for taking her in, when they had shoved her from behind. Why would they do that? Weren't they all playing ball together a few days ago?

And then they started yelling all kinds of things at her. She had been disoriented from the fall and they had all been so loud and too close. Their auras were getting closer just like their hands. Pushing, pulling, hitting.

Cassie pressed her hands against her head.

Why was everything just always so loud and so much? Was she not doing what her mom had taught her to make it better? Was she doing it wrong? Was that why they had left her behind when they could? Because she was doing everything wrong?

_Why was she still here? Why couldn’t she just disappear?_

She wanted to be with her mom and dad.

She winced and groaned as her head started to hurt. A pulsating headache started to spread. It was loud that day too and there were so many people at once in the streets.  
Her breathing started to stagger as she remembered what had happened not only moments ago, but also the day the Grimm attacked the village she was living in.

She had been outside in the market with her mother. She had been proud at how well she had been doing even though there were so many people around. But as long as she was with her mother she could concentrate on her. And that was easy.

Cassie had been carrying a small bag while her mother had a big basket with most of the things they had bought. She still vividly remembered the emerald colored ribbons that were woven around the handle.  
They were just done with the grocery shopping and on their way home when Cassie heard faint screams. Confused she had stopped to innocently tell her mother that somebody might be needing help somewhere.

She didn’t know that these were screams of people that could no longer be helped.

Only moments later the screams had become louder and they were followed by loud and aggressive growling and snarling.

Her mother had dropped her basket.

Grimm were attacking, they had to run home. That’s all she had said before she had picked her up and started to run.  
Cassie had clung to her as she looked behind to see the hoard of black creatures approaching while tearing through the market place which had been brimming with people.

She never knew that her mother was as strong as she was when she had carried her through the streets of the town while running. Cassie had been scared and overwhelmed, but somehow within all of the chaos she had heard and recognized her father’s voice.

“Dad! He’s here!”

She had yelled out and pointed her mother towards the right direction.

They had met her father just as he had taken down a Grimm. He had been on his way to a town’s meeting. Cassie never really understood what they were about. She only knew that it was somehow important that he always went because he was a Faunus and he said it was because he wanted things to be better for her.

He had thrown his arms around them.

Cassie watched her father clip out a long knife that had been in the handle of his battle axe. During all of the times she had watched him train, she had never seen him do that before.  
And she didn’t have the time to look at the knife as he handed it to her mother and took Cassie to carry her instead of her mother.

His daughter in one arm and his weapon in his other hand, he and her mother started to run. Cassie didn’t know where they were going.

But the screams were getting even louder and she could constantly feel so many auras flaring up and disappearing again. She was getting more overwhelmed and she had started to cry.  
She didn’t know what to do. She only held tight onto her father’s broad shoulder as he swung his axe through whichever Grimm had gotten past her mother or ran at them directly.

Cassie never thought that her mother knew how to fight too. Or maybe she _just did._

Cassie was in her room unable to breath properly. She looked at her shaky hand as she wanted to put it on her tightening chest and noticed that her vision was getting blurry.

Actually...no.

That wasn’t her vision.

Cassie could see a black shroud clouding her hand as it started to slowly disperse. She panicked. What was happening?

_Was she going to disappear now?_

Cassie watched her hand fade away and she was about to close her eyes when she felt another hand grabbing it.

But she couldn’t see anything. Her hand was still gone, yet she could feel another one on top of it.

It felt familiar and she was being pulled by that hand.

With a sudden determination she closed her eyes.

_“Take me there.”_

A plea, rather than a command and her mind went blank.

\-----------  
\-----------

Winter was in her father’s office.

A gala he had put together at the manor had just ended. She had played the violin well, she had quietly stayed by his side and behind him.

Everything had went well up until the moment one of his business partner’s sons had asked her to dance and she had refused.

She had for once refused because she had thought it was the expected thing to for her. Jacques didn’t want her to be involved with anyone after all.  
Since according to him even at her young age it could be considered a scandal. Particularly if whoever she got involved with was to be one of the ‘lower’ familys' heirs or a second son.

Still more than anything however Winter had refused simply because _she didn’t want to_.

The boy she had turned down however had apparently been the heir of an important partner.  
And he seemed to be rather miffed after her not only first refusal, but especially after her second one when Jacques had tried to intervene, play the first one off as a jest and _make_ her dance with him.

And so she was now standing in his office after he had physically dragged her there to yell at her.

What was she thinking she was doing? Was she actually trying to embarrass him like that? Does she even understand what she is supposed to represent?

He couldn’t believe that he would not only have just an heir _ess_ , but one that doesn’t even understand how to properly behave and do as she was told.

How dare she tarnish the Schnee name like that? Did she even know what it meant to be a Schnee?

“And what do you know about that? You’re not even a real Schnee!”

_It had been enough._

She had snapped back at him for the first time in her life. Her heart sank, but she was also too livid to care at the same time.

Jacques had stopped dead in his tracks. Winter could see how he was visibly shocked at how she had yelled back at him.

His shock however quickly turned into anger as he stepped in front of her, raised his hand and he started to hit her.

Once. Twice. And he was raising his hand for a third time when something inside of Winter suddenly fell in place.

Winter quickly stepped back, she closed her eyes, raised her own arm and swiped it through air.

The third strike didn’t reach her and Winter felt a cold blowing through the air as she opened her eyes.

In front of her and across the entire office room, there was a wall of ice that had kept Jacques from reaching her. Winter could hear his muffled voice from behind it.

She looked at her shaking hand.

_Her semblance. She had finally unlocked her semblance._

She had never seen her mother use it, but her grandfather would sometimes show her what he could still do.

_This had to be it._

She must have created a glyph and made that ice wall.

Her breathing started to stagger as kept looking at her hand.

_No, she had to concentrate._

This was her chance to get stronger. This was her chance to leave.

And so she took a deep breath and concentrated. A few moments passed when she suddenly heard a knock and a voice by the door.

“Sir, is everything alright? You required assistance?”

“Come in.”

It was Winter who answered the voice she recognized. She heard the door open and a huge gasp.

“Klein, look.”

Winter turned around to show the short and stocky man who had just entered her father’s office the small flickering glyph she had conjured in her palm.

\-----------  
\-----------

_-sie_

_-assie_

Cassie was squinting as she slowly opened her eyes again. Wherever she was now was brighter than her room had been and the light was blinding her.

“Cassie!”

She knew that voice, did she not?

She was dazed, her vision was blurry and she almost fell when she felt a hand on her cheek and the hand that had been holding hers had let go to move up to her arm.

“Sweetheart, breathe. Slowly. Try and look at me.” The voice was calm.

As her breathing became more regular, Cassie raised her head to look into what she could now clearly see as her new grandmother Eleanor’s face.

Had it been really her hand all along? How could she not recognize her voice at first? Was it because she was trying to hear another one instead perhaps?

Cassie was standing in the kitchen of her new home and her grandmother was cowering in front of her and holding her upright. She started sobbing.

“Oh, sweetie.”

Her grandmother’s voice was full of warmth, but somehow it couldn’t console her. It wasn’t her voice she wanted to hear.

“Let’s patch up your elbow first and then you can tell me what happened.”

Cassie sniveled and nodded.

“But it looks to me like you have discovered your semblance.”

\-----------  
\-----------

Winter had sprinted out of the office.

She felt sorry for Klein and the other servants who had to deal with the ice wall in her father’s office, but right now she didn’t care.

And she didn’t care about what Jacques had to say anymore.

She no longer had endure what he has to say.

_She could fight back now._

And she would get even stronger and better now and fight him even more.

Because the moment she was strong enough to stand on her own two feet she was going to leave and never see his face again.

Screw whatever Jacques wants the Schnee name to be. She was going to follow her grandfather Nicholas’ example and be her own person and fight Grimm.

A strong Huntress. That’s what she was going to be.

She would fight until she was able to go to Atlas Academy and then she would never come back here again.

Winter kept sprinting towards her destination even though her lungs were burning.

She had reached the gardens where she found her mother who would always be there drinking tea in the evenings.

“I want a sword.”

Winter stood in front of her mother, her voice was unwavering. She was not here to negotiate.

She was here to demand.

“Winter, darling, wha-?”

“A sword. Like grandfather’s. I want one. No, make it two. I want _two_ swords.”

Winter raised her hand and summoned a glyph on the floor in front of her shocked mother.

\-----------  
\-----------  
\-----------

Winter’s eyes snapped open and she bolted up.

She hadn’t thought about that moment in a long time. Why she would dream of it now was beyond her. Then again these past few weeks had been rather stressful with all of the additional student missions she and Cassie were taking on. It might not have been the soul-draining kind of stress and she even had actual fun most of the time, but it was stress nonetheless.

She wanted to put her face in her hands to rub away some of the tension when she noticed how her hands were slightly shaking.

Her body still remembered the adrenaline rush she had the moment she finally unlocked her semblance all too well.

She sighed when she heard her partner stir in her bed on top of her.

Winter stood up and conjured a glyph to stand on, so she could check on her partner just in case she had one of her nightmares.

With only the light of the moon and her glyph Winter couldn’t clearly see her partner’s face, but she could see her clutching her hand on her chest and her ears flattened against her head.

She raised herself up to carefully sit on the edge of her bed. She slowly reached for her partner’s shoulder and gently tried to wake her.

They had talked about it and Cassie had told her that it would be okay to simply wake her up if it looked like she was having a nightmare. Actually she could even wake her up if she was the one who had a nightmare herself and wanted to talk.

And while Winter herself had offered her partner the same, she also knew that Cassie had for as long as she had known her not once woken up from her nightmares on her own.

Some time ago when Winter still hadn’t known what to do, she had once tried to intentionally stay awake all night in case her partner had a nightmare and woke up. Winter wanted to pretend like she just woken up herself when she heard Cassie getting up.

That way she could have brought up the subject and maybe offer help. That never happened however and Winter had figured out that her partner had always completely suffered through her nightmares until her mind would calm on its own.

Winter gently placed her hand on her partner’s head and she started to draw soft circles on her ears, nudging her hadn’t woken her but this seemed to calm her a little.

“Cass…” her voice was soft.

“Wake up, babe.” Winter blushed a little.

Ever since their relationship had moved further Cassie hadn’t been too shy about any words of endearment. ‘Babe’ she would use casually, ‘Honey’ or ‘Darling’ she would use whenever she was teasing her about something. All three of those and more would be whenever she was about to tell her something she knew Winter wouldn’t want to hear or get mad about.

The ones Winter liked the most however were ‘my love’ whenever they would kiss and make out in the privacy of their room.

Winter however was still a little shy about calling her anything other than her name and while her partner hadn’t particularly minded or asked her to do the same she did, Winter would still see her ears perk up and her eyes brighten everytime she did use a sweeter term.

As she was trying to wake her Winter realized how it had actually been quite some time since her partner had a nightmare, actually it had also been a while since she herself had a sleepless night as well.

Maybe they should take some time off to rest and not go out on missions in the evenings or the weekends. It seemed like exhaustion and stress were catching up on them. They also had to start preparing for this year’s final written exams soon and they definitely wouldn’t have the time to relax then.

A few days might just be enough. They could just get some take-out for dinner and laze around. Some good rest should keep her partner’s nightmares away for quite some time again.

There was that one place which had the Mistral food Cassie liked so much or maybe they could get something from that place they had been at on her birthday. They had also since become rather friendly with the entirety of team STNE whose second pair even Cassie hadn’t met before.  
Maybe they should hang out with them again some time soon. There was some stupid board game they had all been excited about back then and which would make for a good distraction.  
Well, half of them had been excited at least. Winter would only endure it if her partner absolutely made her play. But she was hoping that team-leader Saito would crack first and fill up the fourth slot. Winter was convinced that he was a lot more weak-willed than she was and he had two of this team members pester and one working against him. Granted none of them were as disarming as her partner's teary eyes and hung down ears, but Winter was determinded to not yield that easily.

Either way her partner needed a break and Winter was going to tell her that they were going to take one as soon as she woke up.

And it seemed like she was finally slowly waking up. She raised her head, but she seemed a little dazed somehow.

“Winter?”

“Yeah...sorry...you...you looked like you had a nightmare...so I woke you up…”

“Oh...yeah…”

Her partner’s voice sounded...hollow. Winter was worried.

“Cass?”

“Ah, no...it’s...I’m okay...I just in my dream, I...remembered something…”

She rubbed her eye. Whatever it was that she remembered was getting to her more than her usual nightmares had.

“I see.”

Winter wasn’t good with words of comfort. There was something else she had gotten a lot better with however.

She moved a little closer to her partner and lifted one of her knees onto the bed and against Cassie’s legs.

Cassie melted and dropped her head on her shoulder, the moment Winter had placed her hand on her cheek and pulled her in.

Winter placed a timid kiss on her partner’s head and nuzzled against her. Cassie put her arms around her waist and Winter realized how much she herself just needed this closeness right now.

Winter heard her partner sigh and a kiss was placed on her neck.

“Cass...let’s take it a bit easier for a few days. You don’t have to worry about me saving up money and we’re also good on our training so let’s rest for a bit, okay?”

“Yeah…”

Winter raised her hand to run her fingers through her partner’s hair like she had been doing every now and then lately, but when Cassie winced a little as she brushed against her ears Winter stopped and removed her hand a little.

“No, keep going...please...I’m just a little oversensitive...”

“A-are you sure?”

“Yes...and...I’m glad you’re here…”

Her partner’s voice was timid and weak. And while she wasn’t going to ask for the specifics Winter was starting to have at least a little bit of an idea about what her dream might have been about.

“Of course, I am. And you can call me anytime I’m not and you need me, okay? I’ll come to your side...well, unless I’m physically unable to for some reason, then I can’t. But I’ll still try and you can still call me and we can use our scrolls to talk.”

Cassie giggled.

“Now who's the one without any sense of romance in here?”

“I’m...just trying to be realistic…” Winter pouted a little.

“Don’t worry.” Cassie was almost whispering.

“I just remembered that what my semblance really does is allow me to somehow always find my way to people I love.”

Winter was puzzled, but she decided not to press her for an explanation. She was only happy to hear her partner sigh contently and relax into her arms.

“I’m sorry I woke you up with my tossing by the way…but I’m also glad that you’re here for me.”

“I...don’t worry about it. I was already awake.”

“Oh, I see...bad dream as well?”

“That’s not exactly it, but...stressful, I would say.”

“We really should take break then.”

Cassie started to gently move her hand up and down her back. She wasn’t applying any real pressure, but her ministrations were soothing and Winter still felt the tension inside of her dropping.

For a couple of minutes they simply sat in each other’s arms. Their hands moving carefully to melt away any remaining anxiety and stress.

When Winter started to get sleepy again, she decided it was probably better if they went to sleep again. Cassie had already basically fallen asleep on her shoulder and she gently helped her lie down properly.

She climbed down from her bed and just as she was about to get underneath her own covers she heard her partner’s sleepy voice.

“Winter...love you.”

She chuckled.

“I love you, too, Cass.”


End file.
